Growth Guide
Formations depend on your current development, not rarity
Complete one squad first
Get the level, skills, and gear of your main five in order first.
Look at front-row survival and back-row Damage and Support roles together.
Check faction bonuses on the formation screen
3 of the same faction: HP, ATK, DEF +5%
3 + 2 from another faction: +10% / 4 of the same faction: +15% / 5: +20%
Check whether it is unlocked after the first Capital Siege. The Lord matches any faction in the formation bonus.
Do not force weak heroes in just for the bonus
Even with the 5-hero bonus, you can be at a disadvantage if your front row dies right away or your Damage heroes have low stars.
Compare before and after the swap against the same enemy with the same gear.
Use heroes you have already raised
If you already have a 4-star Yi Sun-sin, you can consider a mixed deck that uses that investment.
Rather than forcing the same final formation on every account, look at your current stars and owned heroes first.
Match gear to hero roles
Split Damage and Tank gear
For Damage heroes, consider weapons and gloves first; for Tanks, armor and boots.
First check whether your front row actually dies, or survives but lacks damage.
Crafting, enhancing, and promoting are separate costs
Calculate gear crafting costs and enhancement/promotion materials separately.
The total in the enhancement calculator does not include the initial crafting cost.
Compare by current stats, not just rarity
Do not compare a heavily enhanced lower-rarity item and a newly crafted higher-rarity item by base stats alone.
Equip it on a main hero first and check battle records under the same conditions.
Overall crafting order depends on your situation
Whether to craft several Damage weapons first or match weapons and gloves as a set depends on the gear you own.
Check the required crafting materials and costs at the in-game Forge.
Example: UR gear enhancement cost
Enhancing one UR gear piece from Lv.0 to 40 costs 195,000 Enhancement Stones and 18.72 million gold.
Crafting materials and later star promotion costs are separate.
Sword and arm guards lean toward attack; armor and leg guards lean toward survival.
Tell Martial and Tactical damage apart
Do not judge by appearance or faction
Read the damage type of each skill. Even within the same faction, attack types can differ.
In this guide, Martial and Tactical are used to tell the two damage types apart.
Tactical damage can also scale with ATK
This does not mean you must look for a separate Tactical ATK stat just because it is Tactical.
Check the actual ATK scaling text of the skill and its damage type separately.
Match protection effects to the type too
Martial-only damage reduction must not be counted as defense against Tactical attacks.
Martel’s team ATK increase and his specific damage type increase are also different buffs.
No unconfirmed formulas are used
It is unconfirmed that Tactical ignores defense, or that Martial is basic attacks only.
The defense calculation, damage cap, and bonus stacking order also cannot be confirmed from the current data.
Castle level goals and hero level cap
Hero level cap +5 per Castle level, 150 at Castle 30
| Castle goal | Buildings directly required | Hero level cap |
|---|
| 10 | Barracks 9 + faction building 9 | 50 |
| 15 | Scholar Tower 14 + Alliance building 14 | 75 |
| 20 | Barracks 19 + faction building 19 | 100 |
| 25 | Scholar Tower 24 + Alliance building 24 | 125 |
| 30 | Barracks 29 + faction building 29 | 150 |
- For the faction building, you only need to level one of the Tribe, Legion, or Ranger buildings.
- The buildings in the table may have more prerequisites. Follow the conditions shown on the upgrade button first.
- Castle upgrade costs leave out prerequisite building costs, so calculate the whole path before you start.
Research priority: start with what blocks you
Research to check first by current bottleneck
| Where you are stuck | Research to check first | Weak when |
|---|
| Long construction queue | Construction speed | Time reduction is limited if you lack resources |
| Long research queue | Research speed | Limited if you lack resources for earlier research |
| Alliance Duel personal rewards | Research for reward unlocks and score increases | Low effect if the reward tier is out of reach |
| Not enough troop quantity or quality | Training capacity, speed, and soldier type unlocks | Limited if you have not met the Barracks prerequisites |
| T10 goal | All prerequisite research for Soldier X | Can be costly, e.g. Medals of Honor |
Castle 30 alone does not unlock T10
Soldier unlocks by Barracks level
| Soldier | Barracks required | Extra conditions |
|---|
| T7 | Barracks 20 | - |
| T8 | Barracks 24 | - |
| T9 | Barracks 27 | - |
| T10 | Barracks 30 | Soldier X research complete |
The path to Soldier X
The last Soldier X step requires Advanced Armor X, Weapon Training X, and Defense Training X at Lv.20, plus Scholar Tower 30.
Before that, there is also prerequisite research that goes through other research trees.
Note
If you only look at the cost of the last button, you will greatly underestimate the resources actually needed.
Treat T10 as a long-term goal, and do not stop growing heroes, Griffin, and gear in the meantime.
Step-by-step soldier promotion
How it works
Train low-tier soldiers in advance, then promote them in order starting from the lowest Barracks during events.
Instead of raising all Barracks to the same tier, you split the promotion stages.
Example for Castle 27-30
Prepare tier 5 soldiers → tier 6 at Barracks 17 → tier 7 at Barracks 20
→ tier 8 at Barracks 24 → tier 9 at Barracks 27
Do not copy this setup as is at a low Castle level.
Pick your starting tier for your account
The setup can vary, such as starting from tier 5 or mixing tier 7, 8, and 9 Barracks.
Decide based on your Speedups, online time, and troop space.
Check empty space and completion timing
Do not fill your training grounds with only low-level soldiers. Finish promoting the soldiers you will use in battle.
Check when actual training and promotion are counted for score in Arms Race and Alliance Duel.
Prepare to raise your Griffin
Check materials separately
Check the Beast Meat for normal growth and the advanced materials needed for higher growth separately.
Compare the game screen with the calculator to see if you can reach the next goal from your current stage.
Use it with Monday points
Use it on Monday, when Griffin materials count for points in Alliance Duel.
Do not apply the requirement for one level to other ranges.
Judge growth and paid passes separately
Judge the Griffin’s growth value and the pass’s purchase value separately.
Just because it is an important growth factor does not mean a paid product is always a good deal.
Check before buying
First check which tier you will actually reach and which rewards you will get before the pass ends.
Do not compare hero shards and Griffin materials using an arbitrary fixed exchange rate.
Griffin cost by level range
Beast Meat / Beast Core
| Level range | Beast Meat | Beast Core |
|---|
| Lv.1 → 10 | 19,575 | 60 |
| Lv.1 → 20 | 66,990 | 260 |
| Lv.20 → 50 | 489,375 | 1,800 |
| Lv.50 → 100 | 2,595,000 | 11,720 |
- Feeding can sometimes give double EXP, so the actual amount needed may be lower than the table shows.
- Cores are much rarer, so use them only right before higher stages, and time them with Monday Alliance Duel.
Clear research bottlenecks first
Personal Alliance Duel research
First check the score bonus and the conditions to unlock the higher personal chests.
Consider Alliance Duel research first, but maxing it out is not always the only right answer.
Separate it from Alliance shared tech
The Alliance Duel entries in personal research and the shared tech the Alliance raises through donations are different systems.
For shared tech, consider automatic monster rally, help efficiency, and construction and research speed.
Check unlock conditions for prerequisite tech
For some key speed techs, there is a path where you do not need to max out every production and protection tech along the way.
Check the prerequisite levels needed in your current research tree.
Do not fix one research order for every account
If time is your bottleneck, compare speed; if resources are, compare cost reduction.
For Alliance Duel research too, check the Medals and research time needed before choosing your next goal.
When to use hero recruitment and shards
Seeing a hero on screen does not mean it drops in normal recruitment
The normal recruitment pool changes with server open days and season.
A hero’s release and its addition to normal recruitment can be on different dates.
Check the ticket type first
Normal tickets, Returning tickets, and Season recruitment are not the same pool.
First check whether the hero you want is in the current rate table.
Saving for longer does not always mean better luck
When the pool grows, the individual odds of one specific hero can drop.
Also tell normal pulls apart from guaranteed UR rewards.
Use universal shards after you plan your main team
For heroes like Ragnar who have a chance to give their own shards, decide carefully before using universal shards.
This is not a blanket ban; judge by your hero star levels, remaining shards, and the recruitment pool.
Wall of Honor and appearance bonuses
Leftover own shards after 5 stars
The Wall of Honor is a separate system where you keep growing with shards after 5 stars.
Check the requirement of a level 20 building for the related faction.
Check the faction-wide milestones
Faction-wide bonuses at Honor 50, 100, 150, and 200 are shown.
Before using universal shards, compare the opportunity cost of using them on a main hero who is not yet 5 stars.
Owning and equipping a skin are different
Owning effects apply just by having it, while equipping effects apply only when you equip it.
Read the current skin’s text and equip the one that fits your goal.
Timed items are not permanent
Check the duration and time left on portrait frames and appearance items.
Not all skins and frames follow the same bonus rules.